Background
Hong Kong Airlines will start the All Business Class flight from 7 March, 2012 between HKG-LGW-HKG. Before the long haul service start, HKA use the specific all-business A330-200 in regional routes to demonstrate the products and services, and they chose Shanghai (SHA) be the first port to receive the inaugural flight on 14 February, 2012.

As HKA use the all-J A332 on that day only, so I managed to do the same day return as well – to try their new service and taste the smell of the brand new aircraft.

Reservation
Booking wasn’t easy to be honest, especially my original plan was booking mixed-class return ticket which cannot do online. So I tried the reservation hotline, problem started…… I called the hotline 4 times, here are the results:
1. Cannot connect
2. Diverted to Hainan Reservation Hotline (Putonghua)
3. Cannot connect
4. Finally connected to Hong Kong Airlines Hotline, but they said they cannot issue the ticket for me, please use the travel agent……I was shocked

After all, I used the easiest way, booked online and do single class only

On the day of travel
On 14 February morning, I headed to the airport and arrived 3 hours before the flight

HX check-in counter in HKIA aisle K

Check-in counters

Dedicated counter for the flight

Upgrade for every passengers

Time to go through the security and immigration

Narrow bodies at one side

Head to the lounge for some food, lounge invitation

You can choose to use the stair

Or the lift to access the lounge

Entrance of the lounge

Seating area

Business corner

View from the lounge – MH 77E at Gate 23

Food corner

Hot dishes

Several kinds of Dim Sum is offering, nice!

Or you can choose cup noodles on the list

Drink corner

My choice

Washroom

The lounge was tiny but adequate, however I think HKA need a bigger lounge if all the business class passengers visit the lounge at the same time.

I left the lounge to take some more photos about the event that day.

Focus for the day, the first HKA All Business Class A330-200 B-LNJ, at Gate 25 loading the meal already

Starters
Crab Meat Salad with Horseradish Dressing, it was incredible, very delicious and good quality!

Main Courses
Beef Steak in Red Wine Sauce with Roasted Potato Wedge and Western Vegetable, the steak was tender, juicy, and the sides was nice also

After the meal service, let’s visit the washroom

Although not much time left, I manage to try out the flat bed

The pillow is supportive and the duvet is really comfortable, soft, warm and light

1 hour 50 minutes passed quickly, and it is time to deplane

One more, first cabin during deplane

Docked at Gate B10 in SHA

Passed the immigration in no time as we only have 110 passengers, and some are waiting their check luggages

HKA have extended the turnaround time at SHA to 2.5 hours rather than the normal 50 minutes (737) for media activities, so I take the time to visit the Terminal 2 – which is 15 minutes bus ride from Terminal 1

Terminal 2 – Airy, Modern and New

Terminal 2 is connected to Shanghai Rail Station

Back to Terminal 1, our flight is the last international flight for the day

Check-in area

HX check-in counters

Advertisement for the all Business flight to London

Although it was the one-off flight, HKA still have full set of signage in SHA

Boarding started at 20:15, and I was onboard B-LNJ again, this time in the first cabin

Seat 5A

Middle seats of row 3, the divider can be raised for privacy

My seat 4A

Door closed at 20:30 thanks to the light load, and I have the first cabin all to myself.
When taxiing to runway, changed to mood lighting

766 miles to go

Dinner service started soon after takeoff
Starters
Phoenix Tailed Shrimp with Mixed Mushroom

Main Courses
Pan Fried Port Stuffed with Creamy Vegetable with Anna Potato and Western Vegetable, my best pork dish in the air so far

Dessert
Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream
Seasonal Fresh Fruit

Washroom visit

First cabin from the front

Seat 4D in flat bed mode

With mattress

Club Premier bar, will have some snacks during London flight

The senior FA lead me to try the Club Classic seat
The Club Classic seat in fully reclined mode

Seat pitch is very good!

Rear cabin

Menu, [Left]Club Premier [Right]Business Class

The flight touched down in 2 hours 10 minutes and the FA wish all the passengers have a happy valentines day!

Comment:
Lounge:
Lounge in Hong Kong was tiny, but with everything we need. One worry is that if the lounge can accommodate all the 116 passengers at the same time but rumors stated that HKA is finding the new place for the bigger lounge now. Serving Dim Sum in lounge is smart and easy way to make customers happy, good touch HKA!

Service:
Service was great, from check-in, at gate and even onboard, the staffs were nice and helpful. For this special flight, HKA have 18 FAs onboard to serve the customers and make the service very good. FAs in HKA is very young, but I found that they are cheerful and they really love their job in HKA, I found their service may even better than the major players in the world.

Hardware:
Seats:
Club Premier – The flat bed seats are the nearly the same as EY or OZ, I agreed that the seat on A330-200 is a bit narrow, but as a big man like me, I found it is still comfortable is seat and sleep with, the only problem is that the leg area is too open especially at the aisle seats, add a cover will be better.

Club Classic – The reclined seats are actually the regional business class seats on SQ and CX, but with more seating pitch, it makes the seating comfort upgraded a lot! Seating there for long-haul flight should be a joyful experience.

Entertainment:
The touch screen IFE offering is great with many choices of movies, TV and music. On the other hand, free onboard internet will be offered (with limit) on the LGW service, it is good for both leisure and business travelers to spend their time during the flight.

Price:
Club Premier is near the same price as other carriers, including Chauffeur service in LGW, I think it is value for money.
Club Classic is another tier, I can say this is a very good J minus product, which have a great seat, good meal and a dedicated onboard bar for 12 hours. For the price at around HK$13,000 round trip HKG-LGW-HKG, it believe it is a very good choice for the customers which can pay a bit more than Economy Class. Especially CX is offering Premium Economy Class (Y+) from April with the nearly the same price as HX, I would definitely choose HX over CX, for the 2-2-2 seats on A330 rather than 2-4-2 seats on 747, onboard WiFi, better seating pitch.

Good luck and hope Hong Kong Airlines will success for the new LGW route!!

Extra – Good Seats/Not so Good Seats
Club Premier – 9A, 9K Good inside seats at the back, but in case of no infants around you. 5A, 5K are aisle seats just next to the onboard bar, which can be avoid
Club Classic – 22-24 A,K Good single seats with lots of room, I would rate row 22 the best!

Excellent TR, I don't know much about HX and I was hoping for a detailed report like this one should I book with them. For some reason I always considered them as a LCC. How did you hear about this inaugural flight to SHA?

HX has gotten some bad press recently, I was reading on our IntraCX that they were blasted for transporting live dolphins from Japan; their advanced booking to LGW is only about 30% and they are getting pressure over the purchase of A380. I wonder what their current growth strategy is? Is HKG big enough for two full service carriers operating out of HKG?

Their single business Club Classic seat look a tad lonely like that lol and the bar looks very plastic. Do you know if HX will operating their A330 all business class aircraft to other ports outside of London?

Great report to show the new product of HK Airlines. I think it's not bad, but not sure if they can get the public to pay a bit more cash to fly in the 'business minus' cabin. The aircraft interior looks very 'Chinese' to me and remembers me to my local Chinese restaurant... a lot of shiny red and bling bling. First time to see this in combination with an aircraft interior.
I must agree on the food quality which looks really nice.

This is a really unique product and flight and I'm so glad you get to try it out!

The club classic seat looks like the same seat Delta uses for BusinessElite on their 757s... However the recline didn't look that good considering all the pitch.

I LOVE the single seats at the back of the plane! They remind me of the first class seats on the larger CRJ's and ERJ's...where they have 1-aisle-2 seating... It is always cool to have both a window AND an aisle seat!

Regarding the lounge...how much connecting traffic will they have there? I wonder how many of the people on this special HKG-LGW flight will be originating in HKG, since they probably won't be spending much time in the lounge before the flight...

Thanks for posting this - I was wondering what their planes looked like on the inside - looks great! Unfortunately, as you mentioned, their website isn't very good. I'm finding it quite hard to get a quote on their LGW-HKG services.

I am rather impressed - their seats and the entire feel of the cabin looks very impressive and the configuration on a 330 is revolutionary. I don't know what the business case is, and have not done quick math, but I must give an applause to HX for trying something new - if they can beat CX at their own game, this is a good thing. More importantly, anything to get CX to shake out their lethargy!

Thank you very much for writing this up. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Saludos,
A.

PS: Below is not good - and the exact same thing happened to me as well - worse case was that their agents seemed entirely clueless. They really do need to separate an Hong Kong focussed entity from the service ethos of Chinese Hainan Airlines.

Quoting sutrakhk (Thread starter):Reservation
Booking wasn’t easy to be honest, especially my original plan was booking mixed-class return ticket which cannot do online. So I tried the reservation hotline, problem started…… I called the hotline 4 times, here are the results:
1. Cannot connect
2. Diverted to Hainan Reservation Hotline (Putonghua)
3. Cannot connect
4. Finally connected to Hong Kong Airlines Hotline, but they said they cannot issue the ticket for me, please use the travel agent……I was shocked

I have never in my entire life of traveling over 30 years seen something like this before.

This has got to be the slickest design, and the BEST looking cabin, combination of loud colors, and overall theme i have EVER seen!

I have taken this whole premium only idea by HK Airlines for granted, but only until right now! I am not sure how viable this idea is, as putting up a fight against CX at its very own home is not a test any airline can pass. But i am most certainly sure that i am trying this product out real soon!

All-premium services do not exactly have a history of success so it will be interesting to see if this can buck the trend. I hope it does.

Is there any difference between Club Premier and Club Classic other than the seats? If they are two entirely different classes of service would you say it is business and premium economy, or, um... Business plus and business, or something? How do they show up in GDSes? I'm a bit confused at what the different classes of service mean here. If Club Classic is marketed as a very luxurious premium economy product (at least in terms of pricing and fare codes) I think that would help.

That is one of the funkiest, slickest, hottest (literally!) looking planes in the air. It's astounding.
I guess with red being a "lucky" colour for Chinese it makes sense to fit the aircraft out in this colour.

Club Premier looks great, but Club Classic looks like a "Premium Economy" product to me - is it marketed as such? Still very comfortable for a long-haul flight.

Definitely a boutique airline similar to Bangkok Air I feel. Worth keeping an eye on.

Whilst it looks very funky, little bit Austin Powers style, I doubt this is going to last. Consider that between CX, BA, NZ and VS you have around 10 daily flights between London and Hong Kong are they really going to get enough bums on seats.

I read almost daily trip report section and i must say your work is the best ... big fan ...

this HK offer is very interesting , as the whole company, especially 22A ... I like Chinese component that is present throughout the product and hope that everything is in place for success ... what is your opinion regarding the success and loyal passenger base ?
thank you for every moment you have invested in this trip report and for whole opus ... stipica

Club premier seats are identical to the newly installed business class seats on the Hainan Airlines A330-300s. There has not been a lot of talk of them but they are out there. I flew Hainan Shenzhen-Sydney in December and thought it was marvelous. Good to get the HNA airlines a bit more coverage on this website.

Thanks for a super trip report! I am curious about the interior of HX all J class A330s and I sort of wish that I know about the inaugural flight to SHA. I will have join the flight and HX J fares to SHA is very reasonable.

The new cabin looks nice, but the cabin color scheme is not too my liking. Not a big RED fan, but knowing its link to HX and color scheme, I am not surprised. Just a softer color!

Other than that, the seats look nice, and I think Club Classic seats are miles ahead of those outdated CX regional J seats.

The food presentation looks nice and I hope HX will adopt it to all wide body business class service. My last J meal experience with HX was disappointing at best. But I agree the F/As are more trying than CX and make a greater effort in providing good service.

About the lounge, I agree with your comment. It is way too small for the London flights and needs to expand out. Cup Noodles are not very good and they can do better. At least use a more expensive brand...

Quoting toby25 (Reply 1):Excellent TR, I don't know much about HX and I was hoping for a detailed report like this one should I book with them. For some reason I always considered them as a LCC. How did you hear about this inaugural flight to SHA?

HX has gotten some bad press recently, I was reading on our IntraCX that they were blasted for transporting live dolphins from Japan; their advanced booking to LGW is only about 30% and they are getting pressure over the purchase of A380. I wonder what their current growth strategy is? Is AND OLD: Hong Kong - Kai Tak International (HKG / VHHH) (closed), China - Hong Kong">HKG big enough for two full service carriers operating out of AND OLD: Hong Kong - Kai Tak International (HKG / VHHH) (closed), China - Hong Kong">HKG?

Their single business Club Classic seat look a tad lonely like that lol and the bar looks very plastic. Do you know if HX will operating their A330 all business class aircraft to other ports outside of London?

Very nice report - i thoroughly enjoyed it!

Actually I don't know why HKA would have a LCC image to public, haha

I heard about this flight during a radio program that about travel.

I don't know whether Hong Kong is big enough for 2 full service carriers, but I think competition is good thing for passengers.

This is a really unique product and flight and I'm so glad you get to try it out!

The club classic seat looks like the same seat Delta uses for BusinessElite on their 757s... However the recline didn't look that good considering all the pitch.

I LOVE the single seats at the back of the plane! They remind me of the first class seats on the larger CRJ's and ERJ's...where they have 1-aisle-2 seating... It is always cool to have both a window AND an aisle seat!

Regarding the lounge...how much connecting traffic will they have there? I wonder how many of the people on this special AND OLD: Hong Kong - Kai Tak International (HKG / VHHH) (closed), China - Hong Kong">HKG-LGW flight will be originating in AND OLD: Hong Kong - Kai Tak International (HKG / VHHH) (closed), China - Hong Kong">HKG, since they probably won't be spending much time in the lounge before the flight...

Thanks again for sharing your unique experience with us!

Thanks burj!

All 116 passengers are eligible to access the lounge, but it is the most extreme case, haha!

Quoting abrelosojos (Reply 6):PS: Below is not good - and the exact same thing happened to me as well - worse case was that their agents seemed entirely clueless. They really do need to separate an Hong Kong focussed entity from the service ethos of Chinese Hainan Airlines.

I agree, hope they can have thrie own reservation team soon!

Quoting BOACCunard (Reply 9):Is there any difference between Club Premier and Club Classic other than the seats? If they are two entirely different classes of service would you say it is business and premium economy, or, um... Business plus and business, or something? How do they show up in GDSes? I'm a bit confused at what the different classes of service mean here. If Club Classic is marketed as a very luxurious premium economy product (at least in terms of pricing and fare codes) I think that would help.

Actually other than the seats, Club Premier would have Bulgari amenity kits but Classic do not, 5 course meal vs. 3 course meal and the limousine service.

They marketed both as business class service, but according to their pricing, I believe it is focusing on the more popular Premium Economy class.

That is one of the funkiest, slickest, hottest (literally!) looking planes in the air. It's astounding.
I guess with red being a "lucky" colour for Chinese it makes sense to fit the aircraft out in this colour.

Club Premier looks great, but Club Classic looks like a "Premium Economy" product to me - is it marketed as such? Still very comfortable for a long-haul flight.

Definitely a boutique airline similar to Bangkok Air I feel. Worth keeping an eye on.

Let's hope they come to Australia soon!

Club Classic maybe treated as J minus in my opinion, and its pricing is about the same as those in Premium Economy, so when you consider thise class, you may take HKA as one of the choice.

Quoting LXM83 (Reply 12):It looks like they put a "Club Premier" sticker on each boarding pass?

I read almost daily trip report section and i must say your work is the best ... big fan ...

this HK offer is very interesting , as the whole company, especially 22A ... I like Chinese component that is present throughout the product and hope that everything is in place for success ... what is your opinion regarding the success and loyal passenger base ?
thank you for every moment you have invested in this trip report and for whole opus ... stipica

In my opinion, as HX is not a member of the three alliances yet, so I think the normal business travellers would still go for OW or Star carriers in this route, so I think the target customers should be those leisure travellers who have 1-2 trips annually and they can afford a little bit more for Premium Economy class.

Conclusion:
If you are a traveler which do not stick to one alliance, for HKG-London service, I strongly recommend you to try HKA, since their departure/arrival time is the best (Both red eye), and 116 passengers on A330-200 provide you a very comfortable enviroment.

Especially if you are the one want to use the Premium Economy Class, let's compare on HKG-London route:BA (772), CX (747), NZ (772), VS (346), QF (747), HX (332), I believe the Club Classic would be the top on the list with lounge access, nice seats with very good legroom(51" vs 36-38") .

Anyway , their Inaugural flight to London is on the way going to London now, good luck HKA!!

The seats and meals look really nice, but agreed, the cabin design looks like this chinese restaurant near my house that opened in the 70s.

I

Quoting sutrakhk (Reply 19):In my opinion, as HX is not a member of the three alliances yet, so I think the normal business travellers would still go for OW or Star carriers in this route, so I think the target customers should be those leisure travellers who have 1-2 trips annually and they can afford a little bit more for Premium Economy class.

This market is far smaller than people think and most people willing to pay more are usually tied to a certain airline or alliance, my thought is this thing will fall flat on its face. I doubt it will get much business contracts either. This all J concept has been tried (maxjet, L'avion, openskies) and most have failed, openskies is struggling and now is putting in a Y cabin. It seems SQ's A345 all J service is the only one doing all right. I hope HK airlines does well as more competition is better, but I do not see this all J lasting too long.